Disney Movie I've Seen the Most

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and fluffed it out to 31 entries (since December has 31 days).  I have done a 30-day challenge before for movies, though that one was poorly executed (I started it in the middle of a month, at one point I posted 2 entries on one day, it is a mess).  I did another one just this year in August on Video Games, that one was better, go read it after this one, all of it.  Or don’t, no pressure.

            Today is day 28 and the topic is “Most Watched Movie”.

Watching Stuff Pre-Internet... And Pre-DVD

Growing up there were numerous movies we had on VHS that I would watch.  “Ghostbusters” was the top of that list, but there were others that I had taped off Saturday afternoon network affiliates, like “Monster Squad” and “Swamp Thing II”.  I was really big into ghosts and monsters if you can’t tell.

(Edit: Turns Out I kind of Talked about this subject a bit back in 2011, during a different 30-day blog challenge.  I even mention the Disney movie there.)

There were also frequent rentals from the library of the animated “The Hobbit”.  There were also rentals from Blockbuster of “Transformers: The Movie” and “GI Joe: The Movie”—I should note that I am in my 30’s and am referencing the animated films, not the live action stuff that came much later.

I have also been weirdly nostalgic for a set of VHS tapes I had as a kid that were lost cartoon pilots that they would package with defunct toy lines.  Essentially they would have a concept for a toy, they would tell an animation company to whip together something—often times Marvel comics would be called to brainstorm and create comic book tie ins, most of “GI Joe” and all of “Rom Space Knight” was their doing.  I have been looking at several of those as I used to watch them all the time too. 

This show is so crap that up until a few weeks ago I thought I had dreamed it.
It should have been a line of M.A.S.K. figures, they did not have what it took to do their own thing.
And I own a VHS of it that I watched often.

The Mouse’s Contribution

The Disney movie that got fed into circulation among these others was “Aladdin”.  As I mentioned on Day 1, I grew up when VHS and Disney were just starting to team up so as to start printing money.  “Aladdin” was also getting a cartoon series, some follow up movies, and even without all that it was still one of the most beloved animated films of all time.  It is a stellar action movie even without the comedy and romance aspects, it might even contribute to my love of Dungeons and Dragons in some nascent way.

This movie is certainly not limited to my experiences growing up.  I am sure that before weirdos started fixating on Harley Quinn and Joker, Jasmine and Aladdin were many peoples’ first animated crushes.  They are good characters in a fantastic and too rarely utilized setting.  Could you imagine the avalanche of retarded complaining if today they tried to release a family’ movie that portrayed Middle Eastern characters as sympathetic, let alone making them the entire cast?

Though, showing a 300ft. tall gold plated palace that might not have indoor pluming...
That would be a good homage to Dubai's attitudes toward outrageous structures.
Also, something of note: No Minarets.

I did talk a bit about “Aladdin” already, in particular the role of Robin Williams as Genie that became the gold standard of supporting characters for Disney for the next age of films.  “Often Imitated!  But never Duplicated!-Duplicated!- Duplicated!- Duplicated!- Duplicated!- Duplicated!”  As “funny” pop culture references by magical creatures crept into numerous productions.

I still enjoy “Aladdin” as an adult, even though there are some flakes around the edges.  This was one of the earliest movies to have a big CGI sequence slapped right into an important action scene and it looks so out of place and awful that it can take you out of the moment.  But that is a minuscule detail to hold against the production.

There is an online inventory of all her outfits.
Of course there is.

             Share your own thoughts on this in the comments.  I know I am not the only person out there who is nostalgic for Disney products, and I am sure many people disagree with my selection for today’s entry. 

I picked Disney stuff just because I knew there was so much of it to talk about and it lends itself to discussion in the comments.  What Disney movie have you seen the most number of times?  Does it hold up to all the views?  Did you watch it on VHS?  Did the tape hold up to all the views?  Would you be interested in reading about me revisiting old VHS shows from my childhood?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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